Elizabeth’s Blog

Well, here I am in Auckland- I know the movie was ?Sleepless in Seattle? but I am currently ?Sleepless in New Zealand? trying to get on the correct time zone.

We had the most wonderful time in India. I never would have guessed that our family would have been captured by its magic. We never really had an urge to go there and several times it was almost nixed from the itinerary. I am so glad we left it in!

New Zealand is total culture shock for us. No holy cows, camels etc. blocking the roads, no trash strewn areas, no street peddlers or beggars and no dust. It makes India sound horrible but it was not and we loved every minute of it.

Traveling in Bhutan and India was more challenging and the roads were much worse than any of our previous destinations, so doing school work in the car was difficult to impossible. One thing that Ted did on the bumpy roads was prepare a music appreciation class on classical music. They listened to a piece, rated it and then learned about the composer and what he was trying to express or how it fit into history. The highest ranking pieces were Beethoven?s 5^th and 9^th symphonies.

Reading

In Charleston the kids and I were part of a Mother / Son and Mother / Daughter book clubs. I had not realized how much I missed that format and group until our family all read a book and then Gibson led a book discussion on Dawa: The Story of A Stray Dog in Bhutan by Kunzang Choden. It is the story of an extraordinary dog that goes on a journey and finds enlightenment. It is Buddhism meets Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz. It may be our favorite book of the fall.

Gibson continues to pour over every page of the animal guide books we get in each country. He knows every mammal, reptile and bird in Bhutan and India. Yesterday we picked up books on bugs, birds and mammal of New Zealand. He is disappointed that there are not many reptiles here and no snakes at all.

We continue to read both fiction and non fiction. Sterling read the diaries of the princess whose father built the Taj Mahal. They both read the story of her father and building the Taj. They also both read Gandhi and then the next day saw where he was shot.

The life of Buddha was helpful for them to understand the art in all the temples we saw.

We were given some Indian comic books that were folktales with a moral that were fun and different.

When we arrive in a new country the kids always read an article on proper etiquette and customs. In Bhutan they wrote spoofs on characters that did everything they should not do. They were very funny and quite irreverent.

Science

Unbelievably enough we found a great book store in Bhutan that had a series of science workbooks for kids. Sterling got water experiments and Gibson got how the body works. We have starting going through them. However, compared to everything else we are going they seem a bit mundane. It is a little hard to get energized about them when you are learning about tracking tigers and seeing their habitat first hand ? not to mention the actual tiger. Yesterday we went to the Auckland zoo with our dear friends Greg Neil and Jayne Tankersley (many of you may remember that they lived with us in Boston for four years while getting their masters & PhD?s and helped take care of Gibson and Sterling). Well, it was such a treat to see them moved home and now as amazing parents to three young children. It was a lovely day but the difference from seeing a cheetah lying next to the glass in the zoo verses even just a glimpse of a tiger after looking for it for three days in the wild is amazing. The tiger search was a huge adrenaline rush and you could see how people would get hooked on hunting for animals (with a camera). We learned about poaching, tiger statistics and how they are manipulated (sadly, over-estimated), park management, habits, personalities and diet.

Math

Ted continues to do ?Everyday Math? with the kids and we finished the Abeka Math books for grades 4 and 5. The kids are doing speed tests and Mathmania Puzzles until we get home at Christmas and get some new books. Although Gibson is now a wiz at metric conversions I would like to get a workbook for Sterling to use for next year.

Interviews

Our kids tend to be on the shy side with new people (I know that may surprise some of our long time friends). So we are going to have them do a series of interviews of people we meet. Look for some of their write ups in future blogs.

China / India

The kids are also in the process of writing a comparison of these two countries which are so different and yet so important to the world in the coming years. Their insights and understanding of these two cultures will help them as they grow up and hopefully make them more compassionate and informed citizens of the world.

Vocabulary and Spelling

We continue to do spelling tests and have vocabulary books and flash cards. I am always looking for fun ways to practice our words so if you have any suggestions, let me know.

Charities

We have seen so many great organizations this fall from Tasmanian Devil Rescue Centers to Aids Counseling Centers. We have asked the kids to choose three and write a description of why that organization deserves assistance.

Educational Field Trips

They continue daily. Highlights would include:

The Bhutan National Museum for costumes, weapons and artifacts housed in a Ta Dzong (watch tower)

Dzong?s of Bhutan. They are the forts/ monasteries with monks as young as 8

Jama Masjid ? largest mosque in India

Humayun?s Tomb- predecessor architecturally to the Taj Mahal

Bhangarh- abandon medievel town

Taj Mahal- I only need to add that Gibson lost a tooth there-

Agra Fort- where Shah Jahan (builder of the Taj Mahal) was under house arrest for the last years of his life

Tiger hunting with a naturalist for 3 days- we finally saw one on our last day

Pushkar Camel Trading Fair- complete with snake charmers

Walking down a street in India is a field trip and experience in itself.

Questions

If you ever read one of our blogs and have a question for the kids, please feel free to send it to us. If we do not know the answer, it will be fun for them to research it and get back to you. We love hear from our friends!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 at 2:25 pm and is filed under Oceania. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.